President Trump was censored by Twitter last night. As Minneapolis descends into total anarchy in the wake of the controversial death of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement, the looting and fires could no longer be ignored. The police headquarters in the third precinct of the city was abandoned and burned down by rioters. Police and firefighters were pretty much told to stand down as the city burned. National Guard assistance was requested, but last night was a total breakdown of law and order.
Rioters are going ballistic over the death of George Floyd, a man who was killed when an officer placed his knee on his neck for nearly ten minutes; Floyd was already in handcuffs. The video is disturbing. All four officers involved in the arrest on a forgery charge were fired. There is anger. There should be protests, but this has devolved into something horrid. Our own Julio Rosas is on the ground. He's reported on multiple protests, and he's never seen anything like what transpired last night. It was pandemonium.
President Trump ran on a law and order platform and tweeted the following last night [emphasis mine]:
....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020
I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right. These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!
Yeah, some people obviously went insane over the use of the word "thugs," which is accurate, but Twitter said the emphasized text violated their "glorifying violence" standard, which led to it being censored on the platform. There is no way this can be enforced objectively, which is what liberal reporter Michael Tracey aptly noted, adding that this was a "really bad move" on behalf of the social media giant.
Making editorial determinations based on your subjective understanding of “historical context,” whatever that means exactly, means you no longer have any claim to being a neutral arbiter. Really bad move https://t.co/N7o051SqL7
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) May 29, 2020
If you're cheering the censorship of Trump's tweets, you're also cheering the introduction of a precedent that could easily result in the censorship of YOUR tweets if you say anything remotely controversial. This is ridiculous
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) May 29, 2020
Twitter is insane for inserting itself directly into the middle of political disputes like this. There is NO WAY its new "glorifying violence" standard can ever be equally applied. So each individual "violation" will inevitably be a subjective political determination
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) May 29, 2020
"Making editorial determinations based on your subjective understanding of 'historical context,' whatever that means exactly, means you no longer have any claim to being a neutral arbiter," he wrote. He also shot a warning shot to those cheering Twitter for censoring the tweet.
"If you're cheering the censorship of Trump's tweets, you're also cheering the introduction of a precedent that could easily result in the censorship of your tweets if you say anything remotely controversial. This is ridiculous."
You see, you even have progressives noting the dangers of censoring Trump and peddling these new measures to adhere to the political correctness crowd. It also exposes them, as we've known for quite some time now, that they're inherently anti-free speech. This is going to be a trainwreck, even if the president tried to do a little damage control today:
Looting leads to shooting, and that’s why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night - or look at what just happened in Louisville with 7 people shot. I don’t want this to happen, and that’s what the expression put out last night means....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020
....It was spoken as a fact, not as a statement. It’s very simple, nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media. Honor the memory of George Floyd!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020
Brace for impact.
The President did not glorify violence. He clearly condemned it.@Jack and Twitter's biased, bad-faith "fact-checkers" have made it clear: Twitter is a publisher, not a platform. https://t.co/lTm3Pxxaqg
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 29, 2020
And now, Twitter admits the tweet didn't violate the terms of service.
Twitter, in an email to the White House moments ago, admitted that the very tweet they are censoring does not violate any Twitter rules.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 29, 2020
So why are they still censoring it?https://t.co/sMtjFipu5N pic.twitter.com/xsr8glIwQS
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